rdiff-backup: Related pages

This page describes and links to projects related to rdiff-backup, either because they depend on or work with rdiff-backup, or because they are competing backup programs.

Software written for rdiff-backup

Filip Gruszczyski has written a FUSE plugin named archfs, still present but unmaintained under the namerdiff-backup-fs which allows browsing through rdiff-backup increments directly as a filesystem.
SafeKeep for Linux is a front-end for rdiff-backup providing LVM snapshots and easy configuration.
EasyBackup is a graphical backup solution for Gnome which is integrated with the Nautilus file manager and uses rdiff-backup as the backend.
slbackup is a graphical backup program included in DebianEdu (formerly known as Skolelinux). Apparently it uses rdiff-backup as the backend. (Here is a page with some instructions.)
rdiff-backup-web is a web-based frontend to rdiff-backup by David Evans. In alpha state as of Dec 2005, and still so in 2020.
Julien Perez has written an alternative to rsnapshot called rBackup which uses rdiff-backup as the backend instead of rsync. It uses a configuration file to backup directories, subversion repositories, and mysql databases.
Backupninja is a set of scripts and configuration files for managing backup software, and includes support for rdiff-backup.
rdiffweb is a web interface to browse and restore data from a rdiff-backup repository. Provide an overview of backup failures, send notification on errors, manage users authentication and many more features.
Minarca is a backup software solution built on top of rdiff-backup and rdiffweb. Minarca Stack provide a tight integration to ease the deployment and configuration of rdiff-backup.

NOTE: both rdiffweb and Minarca are maintained by Patrik Dufresne, active member of the rdiff-backup community.

Community provided scripts

There are many scripts to help rdiff-backup work in various environments available on the rdiff-backup github project.

Articles/books that mention rdiff-backup

(2020-05-25) rdiff-backup – A Powerful Incremental Backup Tool Now Supports Python 3 by Ravi Saive
(2019-01-25) Backup automated using rdiff-backup by Carlos Caballero
(2018-09-12) How to perform incremental backup using rdiff-backup by Milosz Galazka
(2017-04-13) rdiff-backup – A Remote Incremental Backup Tool for Linux by Aaron Kili.
(2013-05-20) Securely backing up your files with rdiff-backup and sudo by Benjamin Cane.
(2010-12-01) Using rdiff-backup and rdiffWeb to Back Up and Restore by Adrian Klaver.
(2009-06-03) Using rdiff-backup under Linux by Werner Fischer.
(2007-08-24) Use SSHFS With rdiff-backup by Stef Bon.
(2005-10-13) Automated Backups With rdiff-backup by Falko Timme.
(2004-09-03) HOWTO: Automate remote backups using rdiff-backup and perl by Gavin Henry in FedoraNews.org.
Kirk Bauer's book Automating UNIX and Linux Administration (Amazon link) has a few pages on rdiff-backup.

Other related backup programs:

Here are short descriptions of other mirroring/diffing backup programs which may compete with rdiff-backup. Of course you should consider me biased in favor of rdiff-backup, but I recognize that rdiff-backup is not the best choice for every situation, and I try to be fair in my comparisons.

rsync - the inspiration for rdiff-backup. Although rsync and rdiff-backup do not share any code, rdiff-backup uses the rsync algorithm, invented by rsync author Andrew Tridgell.
Compared to rdiff-backup, rsync is faster, so it is often the better choice when pure mirroring is required. Also rdiff-backup does not have a separate server like rsyncd (instead it relies on ssh-based networking and authentication).

However, rdiff-backup uses much less memory than rsync on large directories. Second, by itself rsync only mirrors and does not keep incremental information (but see below). Third, rsync may not preserve all the information you want to backup. For instance, if you don't run rsync as root, you will lose all ownership information. Fourth, rdiff-backup has a number of extra features, like extended attribute and ACL suport, detailed file statistics, and SHA1 checksums.
rsync-based scripts - Because rsync does not save incremental information, it is usually inappropriate for backing up. There are several utilities which use the rsync binary, but keep old data by using rsync --link-dest option and rotating the destination directory.
Compared to rdiff-backup, these are usually faster but use more memory and disk space. They make each increment appear as a separate complete directory, which is a neat feature. On the other hand, these will usually be missing the features that are missing from rsync (see above).

Here are various programs which use the rsync strategy:
- Mike Rubel's rsync snapshots - the original rsync hardlinking script
- rsnapshot - based off Mike Rubel's article
- Dirvish - perhaps the most feature-filled of these programs
- Snapback2
BackupPC - A great, innovative program which notices when you save many copies of the same file. Definitely take a look at this if you back up many similar systems to the same destination (e.g. many windows PCs to a central linux server).
Unison - a interesting bidirectional mirroring tool. Similar to rsync, but changes propagate in either direction. Consider this if you need to keep two directories synced and either may get edited.
duplicity - Not really like rdiff-backup because it doesn't mirror at all, but it's here because it's written by the same author. It uses the rsync algorithm but with a totally encrypted/untrusted destination.